To the editor,
Re: Controversial animal bylaw recommended by councillors, Jan. 20.
The decision to leash cats makes me sick to my stomach.
I foresee the SPCA and the pound overrun with abandoned cats that will be impossible to train to a leash. People will be unwilling to pay to have them returned only to run out of the house at the first possible chance. No one will adopt them because they will not want the leash issue or the expense of adoption. I fear that those less fortunate will simply drop their cats off in the backroad areas. If they are not spayed or neutered we will have a very serious problem of procreation of more cats that will probably be feral due to lack of human contact. The rodent and snake population will increase substantially. Then what will be our options? Trap and kill comes to mind. Is Nanaimo prepared to do that to save a few gardeners from shovelling a little excrement out of their gardens? Is a pretty garden more important than a live animal?
On the stupidity meter this one beats the bike lanes that proliferate our town and no one uses.
Robin Hulme, Nanaimo
READ ALSO: ‘Voluminous’ public response prompts City of Nanaimo to delay animal responsibility bylaw
To the editor,
Re: Controversial animal bylaw recommended by councillors, Jan. 20.
Isolated and vulnerable, I have not left my home since March – 10 long months.
It just took one extra burden to push me and it is my city that is doing it. In this time of anxiety, Nanaimo has put an unnecessary extra burden on me in the form of an attack on my cat. With our world flailing around us you decided this was a priority. Why? Shouldn’t you be caring and kind to your oldest citizens and not putting more burdens on us? Have you done any research to find out how many lonely, isolated, vulnerable people over 80 there are in Nanaimo whom you are responsible for and should be giving extra care?
‘Roaming’ cats is a collective term to describe both domestic and feral cats in a derogatory way. Are laws for gardens and uncultivated land the same?
Our cats control the rat population, which also preys on birds’ eggs and young, so a cat population can protect an endangered bird species by suppressing mesopredators. Smell? Never noticed but in any case the litter box is in the bathroom so I could turn on the fan if I wanted. Neighbour cat pooping? Put some pepper around. But didn’t you know they dig a hole and cover it? Pee will keep the rodents away. I see suggestions that we can poison the rats. Really? Do we want poison around for the other animals and our children in our home-grown fruit and veg?
My cat Missy will run to the door to greet you if you knock and accept a quick scratch of her head.
Pat Portsmouth, Nanaimo
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Pet bylaw an ‘anti-animal act’
To the editor,
Re: Controversial animal bylaw recommended by councillors, Jan. 20.
Until the 1980s, Lower Mainland residents could let their cats roam free with no concern about the thousands of birds and other small creatures they killed. Then coyotes began moving into the area and began eating them. Suddenly, people were motivated to keep their pets indoors. Apparently the decision to let cats exercise their ‘rights’ depends whether they are predator or whether they are prey.
Margot Moser, Nanoose Bay
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